New NAS, new questions

DaveHo

Previously my NAS/Media server consisted of a portable USB hard drive connected to my Asus RT-N56U router with the Asus media server app running. I've decided to get a real NAS, a Synology DS215J with a pair of 3TB WD red drives. My first NAS ever.

With the old set-up, once I installed the media server app to the connected drive, everything just worked. My Pioneer N-50 could see the media, Bubble Upnp on my Android devices could see it as well. In short it worked as I wanted.

In preparation for getting the NAS up & running this weekend, I've been checking the Synology knowledge base. Looks simple enough, Install the Diskstation Manager, create a volume/choose a RAID configuration, install the Media Server, copy my FLAC catalog to the NAS. Synology has their own RAID configuration(Synology Hybrid RAID, SHR) which given my configuration looks to be the same as RAID 1. I'm planning to choose RAID 1 unless there's an advantage to using SHR. Any other gotchas or settings I should consider changing from the default? Am I better off using the Synology Media Server and sending media to my devices or using the devices & retrieving media from the NAS? I didn't have that option with my previous configuration. Anything else a NAS newb should know?

Thanks!

EndersShadow

@ZLTFUL

Someone's calling your name

I'm sure there are other IT guys but this ones a bit outside my knowledge base but likely well within yours.

ZLTFUL

Unfortunately, I am spending. The day on planes and in airports. I will try and remember to post up my thoughts when I get home this evening.

Moose68Bash

DaveHo wrote: »

Previously my NAS/Media server consisted of a portable USB hard drive connected to my Asus RT-N56U router with the Asus media server app running. I've decided to get a real NAS, a Synology DS215J with a pair of 3TB WD red drives. My first NAS ever.

With the old set-up, once I installed the media server app to the connected drive, everything just worked. My Pioneer N-50 could see the media, Bubble Upnp on my Android devices could see it as well. In short it worked as I wanted.

In preparation for getting the NAS up & running this weekend, I've been checking the Synology knowledge base. Looks simple enough, Install the Diskstation Manager, create a volume/choose a RAID configuration, install the Media Server, copy my FLAC catalog to the NAS. Synology has their own RAID configuration(Synology Hybrid RAID, SHR) which given my configuration looks to be the same as RAID 1. I'm planning to choose RAID 1 unless there's an advantage to using SHR. Any other gotchas or settings I should consider changing from the default? Am I better off using the Synology Media Server and sending media to my devices or using the devices & retrieving media from the NAS? I didn't have that option with my previous configuration. Anything else a NAS newb should know?

Thanks!

I'm no expert on this topic, but for the past few months I have been struggling with setting up my Synology 713+ NAS, which uses two 4TB WD Red drives. I've had no problems dealing with the RAID configuration (I chose the Synology Hybrid), installing DSM, Media Server, and Audio Station.

Moving my iTunes Library, where my music was stored as "aiff" files, proved to be a more difficult problem. I couldn't move the Library en masse using the instructions with the NAS or on my iMac. When I simply relocated the iTunes library on the NAS as Apple instructed, the Audio Station app on the NAS would not serve files to either of my PS Audio DACs with bridges. (N.B.: I use the Audio Station app, rather than the Media Server app from Synology.) Furthermore, the album art did not move with the music files.

I looked at various third-party apps as potential solutions for this problem, but none seemed easier or more reliable than simply uploading the files individually from my iTunes Library to the NAS using the NAS's File Station app.

Before uploading each file i added the album art file (named "albumart"} to each music file in my iTunes Library. I also created a file for each artist (or composer for classical music) in File Station on the NAS under the shared "Music" file. For each album by each artist, I then created a separate file for the album within the artist's folder, and I uploaded each file from the iTunes Library to the appropriate file on the NAS.

This process is time consuming, but reliable.

The most recent problem I encountered was that of getting the NAS automatically to back-up itself on a 4TB external hard-drive that I connected for this purpose through the NAS's USB port. I could not get this purported functionality of the NAS to work till I found and downloaded another app from the Synology Package Center -- "Time Backup."

This functionality now works well.

All in all, I would say the Sinology software supplied with or acquired from Package Center works, but it is not easy to use. I am a Mac user, and therefore am used to intuitive software with very good, readable instructions when they are needed. Synology is more akin to Microsoft software with respect to ease of use, etc.

One last comment:

I am very disappointed that Synology's software will NOT serve high-res files; as far as I can determine, third-party software is necessary to supply this functionality, and I am not yet ready to take that step. I still have about 700 albums to rip to iTunes and upload to my NAS before I embark on this journey, which I fully expect to be a saga, not a walk in the park.

DaveHo

Thanks for the input. It sounds like many of the issues you encountered are Apple specific. My catalog consists of pure FLAC ripped by DBPoweramp to a hard drive. No iTunes or iAnything in our house at this time. I'll find out!

DaveHo

Well, I'm up & running. Only real hiccup was getting cover art to display. There is a setting in the media server to associate certain file names as cover art. I enabled it(why is it off by default?), but still no dice. Forced the NAS to re-index & boom, cover art. All in all a pretty easy process.

RamZet

Nice, I use these for clients who want NAS drives to sync all their ripped, iTunes, and stolen music to their Sonos or Autonomic systems.


how do you like the interface?

DaveHo

The diskstation manager is fine. Now that things are up and working I rarely need to use it.

tophatjohnny

I am going to be doing this here soon and hoping it goes smooth. Congrats ob your progress and looking forward to doing the same thing here real soon!

tophatjohnny

DaveHo wrote: »

Well, I'm up & running. Only real hiccup was getting cover art to display. There is a setting in the media server to associate certain file names as cover art. I enabled it(why is it off by default?), but still no dice. Forced the NAS to re-index & boom, cover art. All in all a pretty easy process.

This is something I'd like to get working if it doesn't take up a huge amount of disk space??

DaveHo

How do you have the contents on the NAS structured? Under Music, I have 26 folders, one for each letter of the alphabet. Then under each of those, there is a folder for each artist whose name begins with the letter. Then under each artist, there is a folder for each album. In each of the album folders, there are the flac files & a file named Folder.jpg. That file, Folder.jpg, is the cover art. I used DBPoweramp to do the ripping. It automatically goes out on the net & gets cover art. Do you have files named Folder.jpg or Cover.jpg? Do you have each album in a separate folder? If not you are in for a lot of work. So for example:

A
AC/DC
High Voltage
It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll).flac
Rock 'n' Roll Singer.flac
.
.
.
Folder.jpg
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Let There Be Rock
.
.
.

You don't have to have it structured exactly like this, but at a minimum each album needs to be in a separate folder & the cover art file for the album needs to be in that folder as well. If you have all of this already you are in good shape.

The media server app settings have a check box to enable album art & a list of file names to use as album art. This box was off by default for me. Then after I enabled that box, I went under the general settings(not inside the media server app) & instructed the NAS to re-index its contents. I know these last few sentences are a little vague, but I'm not sitting at my home computer right now. I'll update this thread later with more detailed instructions on where these are located within the interface.

D'prived

Also, depending on the app being used the cover art may need to be named Folder.jpg or Cover.jpg.

DaveHo

Here are the two settings I'm talking about. The first is part of the media server app.


The second is found under the Control Panel, Media Indexing settings. Clicking the Re-Index button kicks it off. Could take some time if you have lots on there.

tophatjohnny

Yeah . I did all that after a free trial of MuvUnder Cover. And good thing it was a free trial. They have a slick (but not slick for me) program which allows you to add album art to tons of cds at a time pulling multiple choices for each one and then adding it to your file. It didn't work for my files. Neither my Onk app or the Stream Magic app sees the art work in the 25 free files they allow?? Anyway..searching for an easier way to add the artwork is a mission I am jumping into in place if reripping them with the program I have that would have done it all from the jump if I only would have known. Sucks to be me I know.